On June 24, the Mt. Gox rehabilitation trustee issued a letter regarding repayments to creditors commencing at the beginning of July 2024.

“The Rehabilitation Trustee has been preparing to make repayments in Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash under the Rehabilitation Plan,” it stated.

The move comes after extensive preparations to ensure safe and compliant repayments, it added.

Mt. Gox Repayments

Additionally, the process involved technical safeguards, adherence to various countries’ financial regulations, and discussions with cryptocurrency exchanges, according to the letter.

Repayments will be made through trading platforms, starting with those that have completed the necessary information exchange and confirmation process with the Trustee. Creditors were advised to wait patiently as the repayments in BTC and BCH were processed.

Mt. Gix became insolvent after a hack that led to the theft of 850,000 BTC, valued at $460 million at the time of the incident in 2014.

Some of the larger creditors of the bankrupt crypto exchange chose a payment option that would allow them to receive a lump sum of their recovery payout in BTC rather than fiat.

Additionally, on-chain analysts identified several large BTC movements associated with Mt. Gox in late May. They cautioned that this could put selling pressure on Bitcoin markets.

This latest news has already sparked concern over large amounts of Bitcoin entering markets that have already turned bearish.

Germany is dumping $3B and now MtGox is dumping $9B Bitcoin. pic.twitter.com/O5zWlzr6iG

— Charles Edwards (@caprioleio) June 24, 2024

Bitcoin pioneer Kyle Chassé echoed the concern, exclaiming, “F*cking $9 billion worth of Bitcoin repayments.”

MASSIVE Mt. Gox Distribution Incoming!

Here’s the breakdown of the figures:… pic.twitter.com/i7zCdWGbNr

— Kyle Chassé (@kyle_chasse) June 24, 2024

Analyst Don Alt advised caution when trading with further losses expected.

“Gonna be interesting to see how price reacts to the Mt. Gox announcement. Bulls need to show significant strength to reverse this slow bleed. If they can’t, the bottom of the range may just fall out.”

Impact on BTC

In addition to this sell-side pressure, Bitcoin miners have been offloading the asset. Miners sold over 30,000 BTC worth around $2 billion in June, “the highest amount this year, dropping reserves to a 14-year low,” said analyst ‘Carl B Menger.’

BREAKING: #Bitcoin miners sold over 30,000 $BTC (~$2 billion) in June, the highest amount this year, dropping reserves to a 14-year low.

The recent #Bitcoin halving cut profits, causing especially smaller miners to sell off #Bitcoin to cover operation costs. pic.twitter.com/rfbeI6Mwih

— Carl ₿ MENGER (@CarlBMenger) June 24, 2024

“BTC is now approaching the critical level where many will give up this cycle,” said analyst ‘Titan of Crypto’ in a post on X on June 24.

Bitcoin prices dumped to $61,000 on the news, accelerating losses over the past 24 hours, which are now 4.6%.

The post BTC Tanks to $61K as Long-Awaited Mt. Gox Repayments to Begin in July appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Bitcoin’s price has dropped rapidly over the last few days after failing to keep above the $70K level. The market is currently approaching a fundamental level.

Bitcoin Price Analysis: Technicals

By TradingRage

The Daily Chart

As the daily timeframe demonstrates, the BTC price has been trending downward since the beginning of June following a rejection from the $72K zone. The price is approaching the pivotal $60K support level.

With the 200-day moving average around the $58K mark, a break below $60K could lead to a retest of the moving average. Overall, the market’s mid-term fate relies on the price’s reaction to these support elements.

Source: TradingView The 4-Hour Chart

On the 4-hour chart, the large falling wedge pattern has finally been broken to the downside, and the price is aggressively approaching the $60K support zone. The Relative Strength Index has also declined rapidly and is showing values below 30% at the moment.

Therefore, BTC is currently oversold on the 4-hour timeframe, and a short-term rebound or consolidation at the $60K level is probable.

Yet, if the market breaks lower, the $58K support zone would be the next potential target.

Source: TradingView On-Chain Analysis

By TradingRage

Bitcoin Short-Term Holder SOPR

While Bitcoin’s price has decreased recently, many market participants are seeing their unrealized profits shrink. Meanwhile, some holders have realized their profits and exited the market before going into a loss.

This chart presents the Bitcoin Short-Term Holder SOPR, demonstrating the profit and loss ratio. Values above one indicate that investors are selling at a profit, while values below one point to losses.

The STH SOPR is trending down, as is the BTC price. The short-term holders are on the verge of realizing losses, which would happen if the market drops below $60K.

Yet, this also occurs at the lows during a bull market. So, if we consider the bull market not over yet, the low could be very close.

Source: CryptoQuant

The post BTC Price Analysis: Here’s the First Critical Support if Bitcoin Drops Below $60K appeared first on CryptoPotato.

The total cryptocurrency market capitalization declined to around $2.35 trillion today, shedding around $100 billion overnight as prices continue to tumble.

Altcoins are charting considerable losses with Cardano (ADA) and Solana (SOL) feeling the pressure.

Cardano (ADA) and Solana (SOL) Prices Tumble

Altcoins have declined massively in the past 24 hours with the entirety of the cryptocurrency market trading well in the red.

As seen in the heatmap below, SOL crashed by almost 6%, while ADA lost about 4.46%.

Source: Quantify Crypto

With Solana dropping below $130, many are now wondering if the bears will target the coveted $100 level next. ADA, on the other hand, continues its depressing performance with imminent support currently positioned at around $0.35.

BTC Bears Target $60K

Bitcoin’s price is performing slightly better than Cardano and Solana but it seems to be the main catalyst for the market downtrend.

BTC is currently trading at around $61,300, down 4.4% on the day. Sellers are seemingly ready to test the pivotal level at $60K.

The reason behind this movement could be a recent announcement that the Mt. Gox trustee might start Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash repayments as early as this July. According to a note issued by the exchange:

Now that these preparations are in place, the Rehabilitation Trustee will commence the repayments in Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cas in due course to the cryptocurrency exchanges with which the Rehabilitation Trustee has completed the exchange and confirmation of the required information for implementing the repayments. The repayments will be made from the beginning of July 2024.

The post Cardano and Solana Prices Nosedive as BTC Bears Target $60K appeared first on CryptoPotato.

The relatively quiet weekend ended with BTC struggling to remain above $64,000, but Monday started with a massive price dump to a 6-week low of $62,000.

The altcoins have also turned red, with SOL, SHIB, UNI, BCH, and many others dropping by over 5% daily.

BTC Falls to $62K

Last week didn’t go well for the primary cryptocurrency as the ETF outflows skyrocketed. The underlying asset went from a weekly peak of over $67,000 to a multi-week low of $63,500 on Friday. Compared to the previous week, the losses were even more violent as BTC had tapped $70,000 on a few occasions back then.

The weekend was expectedly less volatile. The cryptocurrency spent it above $64,000 after regaining some traction on Friday evening. However, Monday began with the bears in control, as reported earlier.

In a matter of hours, the largest digital asset plummeted by nearly $3,000 and fell to $62,100 for the first time since May 15. Despite bouncing off and recovering about $700 since then, bitcoin is still 2.3% down on the day. Moreover, BTC now trades 5% lower than it did this time last week.

Its market capitalization has plummeted by $1.240 trillion, but the silver lining comes from the increasing dominance, which is up to 51.6%.

Bitcoin/Price/Chart 24.06.2024. Source: TradingView Red Among Alts

As it typically happens when BTC heads south violently, so do most altcoins. Ethereum has dumped below $3,340 after a 3% daily drop. BNB is down by 3% as well to $575. Similar losses come from DOGE, TON, ADA, AVAX, and LINK.

Even more painful declines come from SOL, SHIB, UNI, and BCH from the larger-cap alts, which have seen about 6-8% drops. The meme coin industry is in an even worse state, with several double-digit drops from the likes of PEPE, FLOKI, BRETT, and others.

The cumulative market cap of all crypto assets is down by $70 billion since yesterday to just under $2.4 trillion on CG.

Cryptocurrency Market Overview. Source: QuantifyCrypto

The post Crypto Markets Shed $70 Billion Overnight as Bitcoin Fell to 6-Week Lows (Market Watch) appeared first on CryptoPotato.

After XRP failed to break above 54 cents, bears took over the price action.

Key Support levels: $0.43

Key Resistance levels: $0.54

1. Downtrend Continues

The rejection at the 54 cents resistance turned into a sustained correction that has pushed XRP closer to its current support at 43 cents. Buyers appear to be waiting right now and have shown no signs of interest.

Chart by TradingView 2. Key Support in Sight

The only hope for XRP is to find good support around 43 cents and attract buyers there again. Whenever it tested that level in the past, the price spiked higher, which generated interest in this cryptocurrency.

Chart by TradingView 3. Major Bearish Cross

Buyers were unable to break the resistance at 53 cents despite multiple attempts. This has encouraged sellers which have now managed to push XRP into a bearish cross on the monthly timeframe. This is a major change in the price action. If June closes like this, then XRP may see a long correction.

Chart by TradingView

The post Why is the Ripple (XRP) Price Down Today? appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Bitcoin’s price crashed toward $62,000 today, resulting in considerable liquidations of leveraged traders. The move comes amid a broader market decline, where the majority of altcoins are also bleeding out.

Ethereum is down 3.7% and is currently trading below $3,400. BNB dropped by 3.3%, while Solana lost a whopping 6.9% in the past 24 hours alone.

However, three very trending cryptocurrencies have had it much worse in the last day and are worth watching.

Dogwifhat (WIF)

Dogwifhat became a viral sensation in early 2024 when its market capitalization increased from virtually nothing to more than $4 billion. In April, WIF reached an all-time high of around $4,60, putting its total market value at $4.6 billion.

Things haven’t been looking very well for the popular meme coin since then, though.

Source: CoinGecko

WIF has been down almost 70% since its high, and many are wondering if its glamorous bull run is already over.

In the past 24 hours alone, WIF has fallen close to 14% and has dropped out of the top 50 cryptocurrencies by total market capitalization. This brings its total losses to around 37% in the past week, 43% in the past two weeks, and 46% in the past month.

If there’s one thing that’s currently looking good about WIF, it must be that the hat is still on.

BRETT (BRETT)

BRETT is another trending meme coin that caught the crypto community’s attention in the early days of March, and it didn’t take long for it to escalate.

The cryptocurrency charted its all-time high earlier in June when it was around $0.18. However, the past 24 hours have not been kind to it, and it’s down by almost 13%.

Source: CoinGecko

Zooming out, we can also see that BRETT is down about 25% in the past two weeks. However, this doesn’t change the fact that it’s up a whopping 130% in the past month.

It’s worth watching how this meme coin will perform in the future and whether or not it will follow the footsteps of WIF and plunge deeper into bear territory.

Notcoin (NOT)

Notcoin plunged by 13% in the past day, bringing its total weekly losses to about 26%.

Now, it’s important to outline that NOT is a blend of a meme coin and a gaming coin that’s circulating on TON’s blockchain and is part of a gamified system on Telegram.

Source: CoinGecko

The cryptocurrency was launched through a Launchpool on Binance and is up a whopping 171% in the past 30 days.

The one thing that these three cryptocurrencies have in common is the fact that they all include an element of being a meme. As such, they tend to be much more volatile compared to traditional altcoins and it’s definitely interesting to see if they will be able to recover following such steep and quick declines.

The post Three Trending Cryptocurrencies to Watch Today as Altcoins Bleed Out appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Sellers continue to dominate as they push SHIB to new local lows.

Key Support levels: $0.000014

Key Resistance levels: $0.000018

1. SHIB Makes New Lows

The selling pressure intensified, and buyers were unable to hold SHIB above $0.000018, which has now turned into a key resistance. This latest drop in the price created a lower low which re-confirms the downtrend. Buyers are absent and they may only return once SHIB hits the current support at $0.000014.

Chart by TradingView 2. Indicators are Bearish

The past four weekly candles are in red, which shows that sellers have been dominating the chart. This is also reflected in the bearish momentum indicators. Moreover, the daily RSI is oversold at under 25 points, a level not seen since the 2023 bear market.

Chart by TradingView 3. Bearish Momentum Intensifies

The weekly MACD clearly signals that sell-pressure is mounting. The histogram is making lower lows, and the moving averages are in free fall. There are no signs of a possible reversal, and this bearish momentum could continue for some time.

Chart by TradingView

The post Why is the Shiba Inu (SHIB) Price Down Today? appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Monday has started on the wrong foot for bitcoin and the entire crypto market as the primary digital asset plummeted from over $64,000 to a new multi-week low of under $62,500.

Although the liquidations on a daily scale are still relatively low of just over $130 million, the total amount of wrecked traders has risen to more than 60,000.

Last week didn’t go so well for bitcoin amid the massive outflows from the spot ETFs. The cryptocurrency’s weekly high came on Tuesday when it briefly exceeded $67,000, but the bears took control and started pushing it south.

This culminated on Friday with a price drop to $63,500. The weekend was less eventful and calmer as BTC stood at just over $64,000.

However, the Monday morning Asian trading session began with another notable price decline. In a matter of hours, BTC lost roughly two grand and fell below $62,500 for the first time since May 15.

Despite recovering some ground since then, bitcoin still trades nearly 3% down on the day and 6% in the past week.

Bitcoin/Price/Chart 24.06.2024 Source: TradingView

The altcoins are in an even worse state, especially the reps of the meme coin realm. FLOKI has dumped by over 12%, WIF by 12%, BRETT by 11.6%, PEPE by 11.3%, and BONK by 10% in the past day.

The total crypto market cap is down by over $60 billion as larger-cap alts like ETH, BNB, DOGE, TON, and ADA have lost about 4% of value.

CoinGlass data shows that the daily liquidations stand at $135 million, which is a relatively low number considering the volatility. At the same time, 64,463 traders have been wrecked within the same timeframe.

The post Bitcoin (BTC) Price Dumps Toward $62K, Liquidating Over 60,000 Traders appeared first on CryptoPotato.

The reaction and market sentiment towards Ethereum spot ETFs is somewhat muted in comparison to when Bitcoin products launched earlier this year.

These are the findings of crypto entrepreneur and investor Andrew Kang, who published a lengthy analysis of the impact of Ethereum ETFs on X on June 23.

Bitcoin ETFs opened the door for many new buyers to make BTC allocations within their portfolios. However, “the impact of ETH ETFs is a lot less clear-cut,” he said.

ETH Price Could Tank

Kang estimates that the Ethereum ETF flows will be around 10% to 15% of Bitcoin ETF flows, resulting in roughly $500 million to $1.5 billion in true net buying within six months.

It was reported last week that Fidelity will seed its Ethereum ETF With $4.7 million, so the buying has already begun. In March, Standard Chartered predicted that inflows would reach $45 billion in the first 12 months of Ethereum ETF trading.

Nevertheless, Kang offered several reasons why the impact of an Ethereum ETF is expected to be less significant than that of Bitcoin.

Ethereum is seen as more of a tech asset rather than a macro asset like BTC. Additionally, there is less institutional interest and buying pressure for it since the its current valuation metrics, such as the price-earnings ratio, make it harder to justify to traditional finance allocators, he said.

“It is natural that those deep in the crypto space have a relatively high mind share and buy-in of Ethereum. In reality, it has much less buy-in as a key portfolio allocation for many large groups of non-crypto native capital.”

https://t.co/On2KWjAlLx

— Andrew Kang (@Rewkang) June 23, 2024

Moreover, Ethereum’s positioning before any ETFs are launched is different from Bitcoin’s as the asset is already up 4x from its lows while BTC was up 2.75x before its ETF launches, he added.

Therefore, Kang expects ETH to trade between $3,000 and $3,800 before the ETF launch but potentially fall to between $2,400 and $3,000 after the launch. A dump to the lower estimate would wipe 30% off the asset’s current value.

However, if BTC increases to $100,000 at the end of this year or early next, it could drag Ethereum and altcoins up with it, he predicted.

Kang’s bearish Ethereum stance didn’t end there. He expects a continued downtrend for the ETH/BTC ratio over the next year, ranging between 0.035 and 0.06.

ETH Prices Dip Below $3,400

Meanwhile, ETH’s price tumbled in the past 24 hours alongside the broader cryptocurrency market, which remains riddled with uncertainty.

Source: TradingView

At the time of this writing, Ethereum is found trading below $3,400, down 3.4% on the day and 5.3% on the week.

The rest of the market is also declining. Bitcoin dropped below $63K for a 2.5% loss in the last day, while BNB and Solana lost 3% and 6.2%, respectively.

Not All Bearish On Ethereum

The only bullish prediction was that large asset managers such as BlackRock could use Ethereum to tokenize real-world assets, but “how much value this translates into for ETH and on what timeline is uncertain,” he concluded.

Additionally, ConsenSys said last week that the US Securities and Exchange Commission was closing its investigation into the Ethereum Foundation.

This could solidify ETH’s status as a commodity rather than a security, which is also very bullish for the asset and the rest of the altcoins.

The post Incoming Ethereum Price Crash: Analyst Flags Warnings of Spot ETH ETF Launch appeared first on CryptoPotato.

HashKey Group, a leading end-to-end digital asset financial services group in Asia, announced the upcoming public community airdrop and listing of its new native token, HSK, which is set to be unveiled in Q3 2024.

The statement notes that the new HashKey native token HSK will earn applications within the entire HashKey group ecosystem and its different businesses.

HSK Public Listing and Airdrop

In a press statement released on Tuesday, HashKey Group gave details concerning the newly unveiled token HSK, including its listing, airdrop, and other utilities. According to the announcement, the HSK token will initiate its airdrop in late June, aimed at enhancing user engagement and community involvement. HashKey Group emphasized:

“HSK is scheduled to launch a community Airdrop through HashKey’s core businesses in late June, encouraging users to contribute to community building.”

The report indicates that HSK is an ERC-20 token with a massive supply of a billion units. Hashkey mentioned that 65% of the tokens will be directly allocated to the growth of the network, 30% to the team and about 5% as reserve funds.

Moreover, HashKey implemented a burn mechanism where the team will purchase about 20% of profits in HSK made from different HashKey group businesses and burn them, leading to a lower supply.

HashKey’s statement indicates that the public listing of the HSK token will follow suit later in Q3 2024.

The statement notes that the firm will strictly adhere to the principle of HSK for ALL; hence, the token will gain applications and use cases within the entire HashKey ecosystem and enable a comprehensive Web3 economic network.

HSK Utility Details

The HSK token will also earn many use cases, including community rewards, token pre-sales, transaction fee discounts, cross-platform ecosystem collaborations, and business activities associated with the exchange. This platform is currently “Hong Kong’s largest licensed virtual asset exchange,” as per the statement.

Other businesses under the group umbrella include HashKey Capital, HashKey Exchange, HashKey NFT, HashKey Cloud, and HashKey Tokenization.

The company also noted that: “HSK will incentivize ecosystem contributors to the HashKey Chain, HashKey’s L2′ Ecosystem Chain’, providing robust support and driving force for users and assets on-chain.”

These recent developments are only expected to bolster the growth of HashKey Global even further. Recently, HashKey Global reported massive surges in trading volume, exceeding $348 million.

The post HashKey Announces Upcoming Airdrop and Public Listing of HSK Token appeared first on CryptoPotato.

It goes without saying that the dispute between the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and Ripple Labs over whether XRP should be constituted as a security or not is one that will likely have consequences for the entire industry.

The case has been going on for many years now, and it’s currently in its trial phase.

Here are the most important developments as of late.

Trouble at the SEC?

As CryptoPotato recently reported, the Commission’s Chief of the Crypto Asset and Cyber Unit – David Hirsh – recently resigned.

Hirsh announced his resignation on LinkedIn. He had more than nine years of service for the SEC. He also denied rumors that he would be working for the crypto initiative called pump.fun, saying that he will be dedicating some time to his family before entering the new chapter of his career.

This happened days after the SEC lowered its demanded penalty from a whopping $2 billion to $102.6 million.

This came in response to Ripple’s legal team, which demanded a lowered penalty to the tune of no more than $10 million.

The SEC stated:

“Ripple avoids comparing the Terraform settlement’s penalty to the gross profit of the violative conduct. That ratio ($420 million/$3.587 billion) is significantly higher: 11.7%. Applying it to the $876.3 million in gross profits, the SEC here asks the court to disgorge, which results in a much larger figure, a $102.6 million penalty, than the $10 million ceiling Ripple insists on.”

Battling on Multiple Fronts

Ripple’s legal woes do not end with the case against the SEC. The company’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, is also involved in another lawsuit in California.

It has to do with the following statements that he made years ago:

“I’m long XRP, I’m very, very long XRP as a percentage of my personal balance sheet. . . . . [I am] not long on some of the other [digital] assets, because it is not clear to me what’s the real utility, what problem are they really solving . . . if you’re solving a real problem if it’s a scaled problem, then I think you have a huge opportunity to continue to grow that. We have been really fortunate obviously, I remain very, very, very long XRP, there is an expression in the industry HODL, instead of hold, it’s HODL . . . I’m on the HODL side.”

This case was allowed to proceed to trial, but the preceding judge dismissed multiple allegations, including those suggesting that Ripple violated federal securities law.

Ripple’s chief lawyer said:

The CA judge dismissed all allegations suggesting that Ripple violated federal securities law. The NY ruling that XRP is not a security stands undisturbed.

One state law claim, based on a 2017 statement, is going to trial. The plaintiff – who didn’t buy directly from Ripple and can’t say if he even heard the statement before he traded – allegedly lost a couple hundred $. We look forward to that cross examination.

Garlinghouse also reiterated that this was a big win for the company and that he stands behind the statements he made in 2017.

The post Ripple v. SEC Lawsuit Update June 24 appeared first on CryptoPotato.

The cryptocurrency market continues struggling, with the majority of the altcoins charting considerable declines throughout the past 24 hours.

That said, let’s examine some of the more important updates concerning Ripple, Shiba Inu, and Cardano from the past few days.

Important Ripple Milestone

While all eyes remain focused on the legal battle between Ripple Labs and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, the XRP Ledger achieved a considerable milestone.

On June 23rd, the blockchain saw 10 million XRP tokens for the first time, indicating growing investor confidence despite struggling prices.

Elsewhere, Brad Garlinghouse, the firm’s CEO, clarified some woes associated with a civil lawsuit where he’s the defendant. The case is held in California and was recently allowed to proceed to trial. However, the preceding judge dismissed some of the allegations, including those that suggested that Ripple violated federal securities law.

Speaking on the matter, Garlinghouse said that this is a “big win” for Ripple.

Shiba Inu (SHIB) Price Potential

On June 22nd, the investor and marketing lead at Shiba Inu, Lucie, took to X to once again remind users to exercise extreme caution in the cryptocurrency space to stay safe.

On the same day, the burn rate of SHIB declined by almost 100%, perhaps due to the lack of volatility and relative price stability at the time.

Data from Shibburn currently indicates that the burn rate is up 20% in the past 24 hours with around 13 million SHIB tokens being destroyed.

That said, we also took the opportunity to ask ChatGPT about SHIB’s price potential in case Bitcoin reaches $1 million. The AI-powered language model presented three different scenarios in which SHIB increases by 372%, 845%, and 2736%, respectively.

The Opportunity Cost of Holding Cardano (ADA)

Last but not least, we also took a look at interesting findings from a popular analyst, who was examining the considerable opportunity cost of holding ADA instead of BTC.

He found that the altcoin has lost around 90% of its value against BTC in the past 34 months alone.

Over the past 34 months, Cardano has lost 90% of its value relative to Bitcoin.

Don’t ignore opportunity cost, it’s costing ADA holders a lot of money.

Source: Caleb Frazen, X

Additionally, he also demonstrated ADA’s shaky performance in the past years:

Source: Caleb Franzen, X

Of course, other altcoins such as XRP, ETH, TRX, and more, have also suffered against BTC in the past years, but there are also those that outperformed it, such as SOL and BNB.

The post Important Ripple (XRP) Achievement, Shiba Inu (SHIB) Price Forecasts, Cardano (ADA) Updates: Bits Recap June 24 appeared first on CryptoPotato.

The cryptocurrency industry is often described as a risk-on asset class that tends to underperform in times of economic uncertainty.

Although the stock market also falls in this category, at least to an extent, it has been on a wild run in the past few weeks, with multiple new all-time highs from the most prominent indexes. At the same time, crypto has suffered and the largest digital asset have plummeted since March.

US Stock Market on a Roll

Perhaps driven by the hype around Nvidia, the US stock market has been on a massive bull run since the start of the year. Let’s take the largest and arguably most prominent index – the S&P 500 – for example. It entered 2024 at under 4,800 but skyrocketed to roughly 5,500 earlier this week to chart a fresh peak.

The Nasdaq Composite has been on an even more impressive run, soaring by 19.8% since the start of the year and charting a peak of its own at nearly 18,000 this week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which has little connection to the hot tech sector and has no exposure to the top performer Nvidia, has underperformed, however. Its yearly gains are less than 4%, but it still managed to paint a new all-time high earlier this year of around 40,000.

The situation with the risk-on crypto assets like BTC and ETH is quite different, though, at least in the past several weeks.

Despite the stock market reaching new highs, Bitcoin and Ether have declined over 10% from their yearly peaks.

Other major cryptocurrencies like $SOL, $ADA, and $LINK have seen even steeper drops, falling more than 25% from their recent highs. pic.twitter.com/NET1hMjr86

— IntoTheBlock (@intotheblock) June 21, 2024

What About BTC/ETH?

Bitcoin’s year has also been quite bullish, driven by the approval of spot BTC ETFs in the States in January. Although the fourth halving also took place earlier this year, an event typically regarded as the catalyst for bull runs, the asset has actually underperformed since its completion.

ETH saw a regulatory nod from the US SEC as well, as the agency greenlighted spot Ethereum ETFs last month. However, they haven’t launched yet and ETH’s price has lost almost all gains that came after the positive news.

As such, both BTC and ETH are down by around 10% since their yearly peaks and have decoupled from the US stock markets. However, it’s worth mentioning that although they have declined in recent weeks, they are still more in the green than the aforementioned indexes.

BTC is up by 50% since the start of 2024, while ETH has gained 54% within the same timeframe.

The post Decoupling: Stock Markets Tapping New Highs Last Week but BTC and ETH Suffer appeared first on CryptoPotato.

A popular New York-based crypto exchange, Uphold, announced the delisting of six stablecoins in response to the upcoming MiCA regulation in the European Union, including Tether (USDT) – the largest of the cohort.

This decision aligns with the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation, which fully takes effect on June 30th, 2024. Passed into law in May 2023 and partially enacted a month later, MiCA requires all digital assets to comply with its extensive regulations.

However, it does raise concerns about the future of USDT in the region.

Implications of MiCA Regime on Tether (USDT)

According to Tim Wang, COO of Elixir, short-term effects may lead to market dislocation for liquidity and trading markets due to USDC and USDT dominance on centralized exchanges.

In an exclusive statement to CryptoPotato, the Elixir exec mentioned that an intermediate term solution would likely be needed unless the EU decides that it no longer wants to be involved in facilitating crypto markets altogether.

Wang also noted that the US dollar-backed stablecoins and assets are still the primary form of collateral in the crypto markets as Euro stablecoins have failed to gain much adoption at all.

The new EU crypto laws impose stringent regulations on fiat-backed stablecoins and e-money tokens exceeding a specific adoption threshold as defined by seven quantitative and qualitative indicators. This system places oversight with the European Banking Authority instead of national authorities.

Key provisions of MiCA include a 1:1 backing of fiat-based stablecoins with liquid reserves, custodial separation of reserve assets, and a prohibition on algorithmic stablecoins.

Uphold is not the only one to have caved under pressure. In a bid to ensure compliance and steer clear of regulatory issues, several major crypto exchanges such as Kraken, Binance, and OKX have made certain changes to their stablecoin listing policies.

Stablecoin Hegemony At Play

While the upcoming MiCA regulations in the EU could set a precedent influencing crypto regulations in other regions, including the US, the provisions for stablecoin may not hold the same importance.

Unlike other regulatory frameworks that originated in Europe and were adopted in the US, such as GDPR evolving into CCPA in California, Wang believes that stablecoin regulation will be more complex since “stablecoin hegemony” will increasingly become a contentious political topic, exemplified by former President Donald Trump’s recent meetings with the US-based Bitcoin miners to discuss the future mining in the country.

“This can easily become the same case as with USD vs other currency-denominated stablecoins.”

The post Could Uphold’s Tether Delisting Signal Trouble for USDT in Europe? appeared first on CryptoPotato.

The crypto market is in the red amid significant bloodshed from bitcoin (BTC) and altcoins. There is currently no bullish momentum, and BTC is hovering around key levels, falling below traders’ on-chain realized price of $65,800.

Regardless, CryptoQuant analysts insist in a recent report that the market is in a bull season.

Lack of Bullish Momentum

The lack of bullish momentum in the crypto market is evident in weak bitcoin whale demand growth and low stablecoin liquidity. Demand from large BTC holders has no strength and is growing at a monthly rate of 4.8%. Although the current rate is slightly higher than the 2.4% seen in late May, it is still a far cry from the 6%-10% recorded in the first quarter of this year, when BTC rallied to its all-time high.

In addition, traders’ demand for BTC is yet to reignite, as seen in on-chain data, which suggests that they are not purchasing the asset at the moment. This cohort of investors has been diminishing their holdings since bitcoin’s price touched $70,000 in late May.

Stablecoin liquidity, correlated with price rallies, has continued to go low, recording the slowest pace since November 2023. Tether’s (USDT) 60-day market capitalization growth has slowed from $12.6 billion in late April to $3.7 billion currently. The crypto market needs higher stablecoin liquidity for prices to surge.

BTC Could Hit $60K

Furthermore, the demand for bitcoin and ether (ETH) from United States investors is still at its weakest, which is evident in the BTC and Ethereum Coinbase Premiums staying below zero since May 20. U.S. investor demand growth is a significant driver for BTC and ETH prices.

The weak demand from U.S. investors can also be seen in spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, which have been on an outflow streak since June 13. The funds have collectively lost over $100 million every trading day in the past week.

“Indeed, CryptoQuant’s Bull-Bear Market Cycle indicator is still trending downwards, signaling we remain in a bull market but without much upward momentum. The index is at its lowest level since October 2023 and below its 30-day moving average. A crossover it’s 30-day moving average is needed for the index to signal upward bull momentum,” CryptoQuant stated.

Meanwhile, BTC could decline further to $60,000 since it has fallen below traders’ on-chain realized price.

The post Crypto Market Still in Bull Cycle But There Are Worrying Signs: CryptoQuant appeared first on CryptoPotato.

While everyone seems to be focused on the developments surrounding the case between Ripple Labs and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, the XRP Ledger has managed to achieve a considerable milestone.

XRPL Hits an Important Milestone

The XRP Ledger (XRPL) is a public blockchain designed to allow for quick, low-cost, real-time transfer of fiat currencies, XRP, and a range of other digital assets.

The network recently achieved a considerable milestone: over 10 million XRP tokens are locked in its AMM pools.

Source: XRP Scan

Now, it’s worth noting that this number has declined somewhat in the past hours, currently sitting at around 8.9 million XRP locked across almost 600 AMM pools.

What is an AMM, and Why is This Important?

AMM stands for an automated market maker. Their goal (and by extension, that of their pools) is to provide liquidity in the XRP ledger’s decentralized exchange.

In essence, each pool consists of two assets, and users can swap between them at an exchange rate that’s set by a formula.

Those who lock XRP in the pools are called liquidity providers, and in return for their stake, they receive LP tokens (yield) from the automated market maker.

Therefore, an increased stake in AMM pools generally signals rising investor confidence.

This is especially true, given that XRP’s price has been stagnating throughout the past few weeks, unable to make a considerable move in either direction.

As CryptoPotato recently reported, the cryptocurrency seems to be on the verge of a massive move. This is because its price has been squeezed within the current range for too long, indicating a balance between buyers and sellers. This doesn’t usually last long.

However, the direction of the breakout is likely to determine Ripple’s trend in the mid term.

The post Ripple (XRP) Achieves a Major Milestone: Details appeared first on CryptoPotato.

The theory of crypto market cycles is one that’s been around for many years now. In essence, many traders and analysts are of the opinion that there’s a considerable bull market once every four years, usually predicated by the Bitcoin halving.

So far, that has been the case.

Within these major cycles, there are usually countless other mini-cycles where, during some instances, certain altcoins perform better than BTC and can deliver larger gains. But the risk of that is that if the user fails to exit their altcoin position in time, they might be left holding a bag that might never recover.

Is that the case for Cardano (ADA) holders?

The Opportunity Cost of Holding Cardano

The popular analyst Caleb Franzen recently took it to X to outline a painful truth about ADA.

Over the past 34 months, Cardano has lost 90% of its value relative to Bitcoin.

Don’t ignore opportunity cost… it’s costing ADA holders a lot of money.

Source: Caleb Frazen, X

Franzen continues his observation, pointing out that ADA is currently trading at its lowest point since December 2020.

In addition, ADA’s performance is shaky for many who’ve entered the market in the past few years:

Source: Caleb Franzen, X

The analyst also made an important conclusion:

This chart is generally embematic of why I only trade alts and I don’t invest in them… they can’t keep up with BTC over the long run.

It’s Not Just Cardano (ADA)

Of course, other altcoins also display similar patterns when compared against Bitcoin.

This is XRP’s chart against BTC in the last year:

Source: CoinMarketCap

This is ETH’s:

Source: CoinMarketCap

And this is TRX’s:

Source: CoinMarketCap

Of course, there are some altcoins that have outperformed BTC. For example, SOL and BNB are doing better in 2024. But the situation changes if we zoom out the chart to a certain degree.

The post The Opportunity Cost of Holding Cardano Instead of BTC: How Much Are ADA Holders Behind? appeared first on CryptoPotato.

There has been increased speculation over a Bitcoin miner capitulation as hash rate increases slow down, operational costs increase, and the asset price continues to fall.

Analyst James Check assessed miner-side sell pressure to determine the severity of the miner selloff in a video on June 21.

Miners selling after a halving event and the slashing of their block subsidy is quite normal, he said.

I’ve seen a few folks speculating as to whether #Bitcoin miners are capitulating and ssuppressing the price.

So I ran the numbers, and analysed both current, and ancient miner sell side pressure.

Now live for @_checkonchain subscribers.https://t.co/BqEd6tkokG

— _Checkmate (@_Checkmatey_) June 21, 2024

Bitcoin Miners Selling

Check analyzed the Puell multiple, which is calculated by dividing the daily issuance value of bitcoins by the 365-day moving average of daily issuance value, to determine that miners may not be at an “extreme level of stress, but they’re not having a great time either.”

If the market declines further from here they would probably enter capitulation, he said before adding, right now they are just “teetering on the edge.”

He also identified a “hash ribbon inversion,” which happens when the 30-day moving average of the hash rate crosses below the 60-day moving average, signaling a period of difficulty when weaker miners have to turn off non-profitable rigs.

Moreover, the overall hash rate decline has been just 4%, which isn’t enormous and is smaller than during previous periods of miner stress.

“Miners are likely to be distributing some of their treasury, but it may not be a complete and total fire sale, meaning that they might be just treading water.”

“This doesn’t feel like a real painful bear market capitulation,” he concluded.

In a post on X on June 21, fellow analyst Willy Woo commented that bitcoin will recover when “weak miners die and hash rate recovers.”

“This one is for the record books as it’s taking a lot of time for miner capitulation post-halving,” he added before stating that ordinal inscriptions were probably boosting profits.

I’ll break it down in simple terms.

When does #Bitcoin recover? It’s when weak miners die and hash rate recovers.

This one is for the record books as it’s taking a lot of time for miner capitulation post-halving.

Probably can thank ordinal inscriptions boosting profits. pic.twitter.com/19MB0b8mHO

— Willy Woo (@woonomic) June 20, 2024

BTC Price Outlook

Bitcoin fell to a five-week low of $63,550 on June 21 but had recovered to reclaim $64,000 during Asian trading on Saturday.

Analyst “Don Alt” said that markets were at a “do-or-die” level on the weekly timeframe before reiterating his stance: “I really don’t like the $60k range low for another test.”

If this level is broken, BTC could fall to the next support level, which is $52,000, he said. This would push miners into capitulation, inducing further selling pressure.

$BTC

At a do-or-die weekly level here As I stated before I really don’t like the $60k range low for another test This one is better, untested support

If it breaks I think we’ll go to the next support indicated, if it holds new ATHs are likely pic.twitter.com/ROZ1oQZ001

— DonAlt (@CryptoDonAlt) June 21, 2024

The post More Pain For BTC Incoming? Miners Haven’t Capitulated Yet appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Leading digital asset technology firm Marathon Digital has found a way of utilizing the heat from its Bitcoin mining activities.

Marathon’s latest announcement revealed that it has launched a pilot project to warm a Finland community of roughly 11,000 residents with recycled heat from its Bitcoin mining operations.

Marathon Uses Mining to Warm Districts

The Finland district heating project is Marathon’s first, marking its debut in Europe. District heating entails heating local buildings by distributing centrally heated water through underground pipes. Finland relies on biomass for district heating; however, this project is looking to reduce carbon emissions and operating costs.

Europe’s cold climate has attracted data center companies, which benefit from the continent’s reduced energy consumption and infrastructure costs. The cooler temperatures have also led to the creation of a network of district heating systems aimed at providing warmth to residents.

Although European data centers consume less energy, their collective share is at least double the global average, accounting for 3% compared to 1-1.5% globally. This also means that these companies generate significant amounts of heat, which could foster strategic partnerships with district heating systems.

Rather than waste the heat produced by data centers like Marathon, it could be recycled to meet heating demand in districts. This reduces costs and waste for the involved parties and nearly eliminates the need for carbon-emitting heat sources.

“Following the success of our pilot project in Utah, where we demonstrated that it is both economically viable and environmentally beneficial to use landfill gas for digital asset compute, we have continued to experiment with innovative ways that our operations can add value beyond securing distributed ledgers, like Bitcoin’s,” said Marathon’s chief growth officer Adam Swick.

Advancing the Crypto Mining Industry

Marathon energized the 2-megawatt data center for the pilot project in late May in the Satakunta region of Finland. It is part of Marathon’s commitment to sustainability and exploring new revenue streams.

Marathon’s chairman and CEO, Fred Thiel, believes the project could propel the advancement of the crypto-computing industry and strengthen the Bitcoin miner’s leading position in the space.

“This pilot project in Finland is a critical step forward in our strategy to expand globally and innovate sustainably. We are not just producing digital assets; we are heating homes and integrating sustainable practices into our business model,” Thiel added.

The post Here’s How Marathon Digital is Using Bitcoin Mining to Heat a Finland Town appeared first on CryptoPotato.

It’s safe to say that Bitcoin’s price has seen better days. Just a couple of days ago, it dropped to a low of around $63,400 – a point that was last observed about a month ago.

Since June 7th, the BTC price has lost about 11%, with altcoins tumbling even harder.

This hasn’t deterred some analysts from remaining bullish, and CrediBULL Crypto is one of them.

$100K Bitcoin Price Still Possible

The well-known crypto analyst with 400,000 followers on X took to the social media platform yesterday to share his thoughts on Bitcoin’s price.

CrediBULL said:

Our last impulse took us from $38K to $73K in 1.5 months. That’s a $35K move in about 50 days.

The impulses that follow should be even more aggressive and we are trading at $64K.

Our next impulse could send us to $100K within 30 days, and we still have around 6 months left till EOY.

Source: CrediBULL Crypto, X

That said, for BTC to increase to $100K from its current point, the price needs to increase by a considerable 56.25%.

But CrediBULL is not the only one with a bullish bias.

Bernstein Sees Bitcoin Target $200K by 2025

Analysts from the well-known analytics firm Bernstein Research have recently changed their long-term price forecast for BTC to $200K by the end of 2025.

It’s worth noting, however, that the firm had previously predicted that Bitcoin would reach $150K in the same period.

The analysts also outlined that spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds might represent about 7% of the total circulating supply in 2025.

They said that this would likely be this cycle’s high, but after that, BTC may go to as high as $1 million by the year 2033. By that time, the ETFs might have captured a considerable 15% of the cryptocurrency’s circulating supply at the time.

The post Bitcoin Price Prediction: Analyst Defies Bearish Bias, Says Next Impulse Could Target $100K appeared first on CryptoPotato.